Walter Mosley visit to benefit Woodland Pattern

Walter Mosley made his bones writing crime fiction, and became famous when presidential candidate Bill Clinton talked up his novels on the campaign trail. But in the decades that have followed 1990’s “Devil in a Blue Dress,” Mosley has amassed a body of writing of such richness and diversity that some part of it could speak to nearly every American reader.

Woodland Pattern Book Center will present “An Evening With Walter Mosley” Nov. 18 as its anniversary celebration and fundraiser at The Hamilton, 823 E. Hamilton St.

According to Woodland Pattern, Mosley will focus on his novel “The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey,” about a 91-year-old man with dementia, whose friendship with a young woman leads to an unusual experiment and a killer to track down. In his Los Angeles Times review, Tim Rutten called it “an unexpectedly profound novel of the subtle links between memory and identity, of the difference between forgetting and having the past stripped from you...."

The evening begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by Mosley’s talk/performance at 7 p.m. Tickets are $80 for the reception and performance ($150 for couples), $20 for the performance only. Call (414) 263-5001.

The Woodland Pattern event also will honor two longtime supporters, Daisy Cubias and Lucille Rosenberg, who are both poets and activists.

Woodland Pattern, 720 E. Locust St., is a nonprofit book center, art gallery and performance space, with a long tradition of presenting writing and art programs for children and adults.